Category Archives: Inspection

The day after the Florida shootings this may seem off topic and a tad tone deaf. But maybe not. If we can’t talk to each other all the framing in the world won’t shift the debate, change minds. The left and the right seem to share this Army boots framing when it comes to guns. When passion, and achieving agendas by any means politics, replace respectful debate then no more than spinning society’s wheels is almost always the long term result.

by Ken Carman

Let me tell you about an argument I had with an old friend at a party for homebrewers this past Christmas time. I used to tour, every year, through the panhandle of Florida and developed a friendship with a pro-brewer there. A devout listener to Rush Limbaugh I’d listen to his rants on politics and comment when I felt we had some agreement, and offer slight revisions at best otherwise. If he had asked me once, “Well, Ken, what do you think?” he may have gotten an earful, but he didn’t. To be honest, left or right, I find that respectful approach extinct these days. And, in addition, I don’t think I’ve heard, “Well what do YOU think?” phrased respectfully for at least 20 years. And the respectful listening and response to those thoughts maybe 30 or 40.
We talk at people, not to.
I believe talk radio and talking head programs are mostly responsible, and while not all right oriented; far more is due to the success and then cloning of the Limbaugh format, same for the Hannity/O’Reilly TV formats. Yet, I am willing to admit the left has played a part too, having followed a path pre-blazed. I must do some defending too: if pretty much all you have is framing-based name calling aimed at groups of people and individuals… doing what you must to cast them in the worst light… what’s the only real response available to those folks who wish not to be beaten down? To just be their opponent’s bitches? Or to counter bluster with bluster? Bluster that essentially amounts to… Read more

Now in more local news: Nashville’s Mayor Megan Berry was caught having an affair. My first question was, “OK, why do I need to know this? Isn’t this between her, her husband, whomever she’s having an affair with? Maybe whatever minister, priest or rabbi they wish to take consul with, or have moderate?” As the story developed, OK, it was with another government employee; that adds a complication that may need some quiet investigating. Of course the real question here comes down to was tax money used to keep the affair going. That certainly that deserves investigation, but must it be splattered all over the news as just one more poorly written political soap opera? Read more

One must ask… is there some end game here? What resolve is even possible? Is it even remotely possible that pols and pundits will ever again consistently do, or say, “what’s right;” even when it’s not best for them? I think there may never be a more appropriate time to decide this than right now.

by Ken Carman

’Promised land,’ when it comes to America, has always been more a talking point than anything else, except for the select, favored few. ‘Promised land’ for the slaves stuffed into the holds of wooden ships, some of whom were tossed overboard if they found they were carrying too much weight? Yet if you look into their discussions at the time a lot of the heated debates used sources, like the bible, or the Constitution, at least attempting to make it all seem rational and logical. Even the insults were more intelligent sometimes. These days; in a fast moving, texting, tweeting world, ‘talking points’ have been boiled down to little more than mind numbing simplistic framing, and framing using bully tactics: otherwise known as ‘name calling.’
This is why we are where we are today. Simplistic false framing is one of the bigger reasons why some of the worst politicians win: pols who should have had no chance at all. It’s why marginally better ones lose and significantly better ones have less of a chance of than Custer if all his men had vanished when the natives arrived. And it’s also why people feel so comfortable sinking into the current deep cesspool of pure partisan idiocy… Read more

My train of thought ran over the nerve that inspires columns this morning as I watched an AHC program about the American Revolution. We were losing the war and partisans started to win the war by using tactics the Brits; who were by no means more pure, found unacceptable, like hit and run. One thing especially brutal: those accused of being sympathizers were tarred and feathered; a process bad enough as commonly portrayed. Hot, thinned out tar is applied the accused who has been stripped naked, then feathers.
What isn’t mentioned is that once tarred and feathered the feathers were set on fire. Read more

Early one late December morning in the Christ house the clock alarm went off…

“Joseph, why did you set the alarm so early? You know us virgins need our beauty rest.”
“I’m sorry, Mary, but through the grape vine lines I heard Roman SS stormtroopers are on the march. We needed the extra time: Holyland Security is watching the airports because Herrod isn’t Pro-Life. Since all the soldiers are watching the airports I have the Porsche ready and I think we can find a Manger 6 at a safe distance as long as we take the “long and winding way” via Interstate Route 666…

There’s so much wrong with all that that I’ll just let you chuckle while I Beatles around the burning bush that’s chasing me for committing heresy for the sake of an admittedly weak joke.
Point being, on a personal level, we hardly have a clue about the hardships our ancestors went through, like how hard it was when one couple walked a great distance to keep a future savior safe. Read more